Dell Inspiron 1000

Features of Dell Inspiron 1000

Feature-wise, the Dell Inspiron 1000 is a mixed bag. On the downside, it lacks internal wireless network capabilities--unusual even for a bargain-bin laptop these days. However, Dell's current promotion (as of August 2004) includes a free Wi-Fi 802.11b/g card for the laptop's single PC Card slot; still, we'd still prefer an internal card that would require less battery power, besides, we have no idea when this promotion will end. There are no FireWire or S-Video ports either, but the Inspiron 1000 does have a 10/100 Ethernet interface, three USB 2.0 ports, a modem, and a port to connect an external analog display. The laptop's stereo speakers, which are surprisingly loud and clear, line the notebook's front edge; the right edge of the system holds a fixed DVD player/CD-RW drive.

The Inspiron 1000's specs are utilitarian. The system comes with 512MB of memory installed (the maximum it can handle); an integrated graphics controller; and an adequate, though not overly large, 40GB hard drive. The notebook runs Intel's low-cost, old-school Celeron processor, so even compared to other Celeron-based systems, the Inspiron 1000 is slow; in fact, it's the slowest 2.0GHz Celeron notebook that CNET has tested.

Dell provides a reasonable software bundle for the price. Microsoft XP Home comes preloaded, and Dell throws in the capable but dated WordPerfect 11.0 word processor and Quattro Pro 11.0 spreadsheet software, along with Microsoft Money 2004, and several CD- and DVD-recording utilities (even though the notebook lacks DVD-recording capability).